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CONSUMER PERCEPTIONS

From myths to action

Nature Climate Change volume 9, pages 8–9 (2019)Cite this article

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Correcting misperceptions provides an opportunity to reduce household GHG emissions across multiple domains. Now research shows that consumers greatly underestimate emissions from foods, but these misperceptions can be successfully corrected with carbon labelling.

Identifying what actions matter from a GHG perspective is a complex task that demands integrative knowledge of how products and services are produced and supplied, how products function and which processes produce emissions. Even dedicated and knowledgeable consumers may struggle with this task, particularly due to limited information on the processes involved in supplying goods and services (for example, the required material and energy input, or amount of transportation between suppliers). Without information, consumers may rely on intuitive notions to identify GHG-intensive actions. These intuitions are often biased towards visible energy-consuming actions, such as the use of household lighting — yet these actions are seldom the most GHG-intensive6. Instead, ‘invisible’ supply chain processes, such as methane releases from livestock, are typically responsible for more GHG emissions7. These GHG misperceptions may induce consumers to pursue suboptimal mitigation actions and public and private managers to misdirect mitigation efforts. Correcting prevalent misperceptions is thus critical to directing efforts towards the most promising actions8.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Vanderbilt University Law School, Nashville, TN, USA

    Michael P. Vandenbergh

  2. Copenhagen Business School, Frederiksberg, Denmark

    Kristian Steensen Nielsen

Authors
  1. Michael P. Vandenbergh
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  2. Kristian Steensen Nielsen
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Correspondence to Michael P. Vandenbergh.

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Vandenbergh, M.P., Nielsen, K.S. From myths to action. Nature Clim Change 9, 8–9 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0357-9

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